Govt needs to simplify terms of eligibility for funding to start-ups: Nilesh Aggarwal

While the global pandemic has bought economies to a halt and massively disrupted businesses, it has also fuelled start-up dreams and we even saw several Indian start-ups achieve Unicorn status during the pandemic period. The times have never been better for the budding entrepreneurs to give wings to their start-up dreams.

The Government, too, has come up with various schemes to support its ‘Vocal for Local’ drive. A case in point is the recent Rs 1,000 crore Start-up India Seed Fund announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Start-up India International Summit 2021 held earlier this year.

Adgully is turning the spotlight on the entrepreneurs who fought against all odds to bring their dreams to fruition in our special series – START-UP STARS. We at Adgully wholeheartedly support the ‘Vocal for Local’ movement and over the next few months will be featuring all local/ homegrown businesses, brands and Apps.

In conversation with Adgully, Nilesh Aggarwal, Director and CEO of Medtalks.in, takes us through the journey of how he started this platform for doctors, how Medtalks is filling the gap in medical education, evolution of the start-up ecosystem in India and much more.

Please take us through your journey as an entrepreneur. What motivated you to establish your start-up? What were you doing prior to turning an entrepreneur?

I am a healthcare professional and have been running the IJCP Group for the past 10 years. IJCP is a leading medical communications player in India and has been in the market since 1991. Its products and services include medical journals, CMEs (Continuing Medical Education), healthcare PR, digital healthcare marketing, and healthcare media. I am also the co-founder and CEO of eMediNexus, which is a doctors’ content and networking platform with a reach of over 250,000 doctors. While working with IJCP, I saw the inconvenience caused to doctors who are overburdened with multiple journals and print educational informational, which are in majority not read and thrown away by doctors. I realised that there is a huge scope for doctors who happen to be some of the busiest professionals in India, to be given a one-stop platform, where all their CME needs can be solved. With Medtalks, we are striving to give them a one-stop learning healthcare learning platform online. We have also created a bank of over 3,000 videos with top doctors answering common patient education questions. Medtalks is also filling the gap in medical education by offering certified programs and courses to doctors and healthcare professionals to improve the overall patient health in India.

What need gap did you want to fulfil with your start-up? What is the core business proposition?

Medtalks is the first ever initiative in India which is dedicated to the cause of simplifying and spreading medical awareness and education among the general public and healthcare professionals both. Our core business proposition is to bridge the gap between doctors and patients alongside ensuring Continuing Medical Education for healthcare practitioners. Today, we have a robust technology driven platform, which offers CME and CPD courses online. We have trained more than 200,000 professionals during the last six months. Medtalks has a video bank with more than 3,000 videos already, wherein renowned medical professionals address basic healthcare related queries of the patients. We are constantly expanding this library through addition of new videos on prevalent topics.

How did you identify your TG? Did you carry out any feasibility study prior to starting your business?

One of the major healthcare challenges in India is the sheer shortage of qualified doctors, which is well below the WHO recommended minimum doctor to patient ratio 1:1000. A majority of Indian public resides in non-urban or far-flung areas, where this ratio is further skewed compared to the urban areas. Thus, there is a major gap of access to quality medication and diagnosis, which leads people to resort to unqualified practitioners or attempt self-medication and diagnosis by online search based on their symptoms. This further complicates the things as self-consumption of drugs such as antibiotics might cause more harm than good. This is one of the main observations which drove us to create Medtalks.in and we are addressing the challenge by providing an ever-expanding library of videos with more than 3,000 videos featuring expert doctors who answer common health queries from patients. Further, we are also focusing on improving the quality of medical services by becoming a leading education platform for various healthcare stakeholders. We have launched hundreds of CME courses for professional development of practicing doctors.

What were the challenges that you faced in your start-up journey and how did you overcome them?

Being a non-tech person and not having a co-founder with a tech background has always been a challenge given the importance of software in our start-up. It took a lot of effort and a lot of hits and misses to have the robust tech team that we have now. We have been very focused on being cash flow positive and profitable unlike a lot of start-ups that face this challenge and I’m glad we have avoided this particular challenge.

What were the clearances that you required for your venture from various authorities?

There were no such clearances required from authorities. All the courses on Medtalks are certified by reputed healthcare institutions and professional bodies. Given that our content impacts healthcare decisions and patient health, we have a board of the top doctors across India who validate and certify our content.

Funds/ finance is the prime issue of almost all start-ups. What can the industry and the Government do to address this issue and ease the capital requirements of start-ups?

There is a tremendous need to back the government’s push for start-ups with financial inputs. While certain steps such as tax concessions and relaxation in operational procedures have been taken to make the functioning simpler, the core need of seed and early stage funding still remains a major challenge. Most of the start-up founders struggle to get adequate financial support even when their idea or product is of high potential. The government needs to do more by simplifying the terms of eligibility for funding to start-ups. As of now, the conditions are so stringent that most early stage start-ups are unable to match the eligibility criteria of financial institutions.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi announced a Startup India Seed Fund. How do you see start-ups benefiting from it?

This is a great step forward in the right direction. The Prime Minister wishes India to become self-reliant in all aspects of products and services and eventually become the global hub of tech and innovation. We have a thriving start-up ecosystem, huge human resources and potential to make this happen. While Startup India Seed Fund is a good beginning, the allocation of funds has to be far greater in order to make a nationwide impact and encourage the next wave of entrepreneurs to join the fray. At the same time, start-ups need relaxation of norms as far as collateral free seed funding is concerned. Banks and other financial institutions need to offer them support at par with the support offered to existing industries. Thus, we would say that the momentum created by Startup India Seed Fund’s announcement has to be continued forward.

How is digital helping you further your business?

Medtalks.in has been able to make such a major nationwide impact primarily because it is a technology driven digital platform. Whether it is us or any other tech-driven start-up, the digital ecosystem provides limitless opportunities for growth, expansion and reaching out to the audiences. We have trained more than 100,000 healthcare professionals in various CME courses in the last six months. We have also spread awareness among millions of patients related to various diseases and health concerns through our 3,000+ videos, which are available online. Such scale of access and impact can only be made possible by digital technology. This is just the beginning and I have absolute faith that the digital approach will eventually propel us towards accomplishing our goal of achieving quality healthcare for all Indians and making adequate CME opportunities available for our doctors all over the country.

What were your key learnings from 2020? How do you see the start-up ecosystem progressing in 2021?

The year 2020 has taught all of us about how resilience and dynamic action are crucial for survival in the modern world of business. There are challenges of conventional as well as emerging nature. The whole world has become one single market courtesy of the world wide web, and to access this market, technology is going to be the biggest enabler. The emphasis on digital technology becomes even greater in the wake of the pandemic and I believe 2021 and the years to follow are going to be great opportunities for start-ups that can smartly integrate technology. The need of the hour is to use the available tech to innovate and simplify life for users. As long as a company is able to solve a problem faced by the target audience, it is going to thrive.

What would be your message for the budding entrepreneurs?

There are always two sides to a coin and we need to look at the brighter side of the things. It is true that the pandemic last year caused disruption, slowdown and even a longer-term impact on certain industries. However, that’s where strategic thinking, contingency planning and the flexibility of an organisation’s working define the extent of success it can achieve. So, whenever you are presented with a challenge, don’t try to avoid it, but solve it for yourself and for others. As long as you do that, nothing will stop your growth.